The Shin Bet security service said Monday that the Palestinian arrested for the murder of Esther Horgan did so out of revenge for the death of a former fellow prisoner who died of an illness in an Israeli prison.
The group identified the suspect for the first time, identifying him as Mohammed Kabha, a 40-year-old from a town near Jenin in the West Bank, who had previously spent several terms in Israeli prison for terrorist crimes.
Esther Horgan and Mohammed Kabha
(Photo: Shin Bet)
Horgan, 52, left her home in a North Bank Northwest settlement in Tal Menashe three weeks ago for a boxing in nearby Reihan Forest. Her body was found hours later with clear signs of violent assault said by police and the shocking Shin Bet.
The security agency said four other suspects were arrested for aiding the suspect in carrying out the attack and trying to evade justice.
During interrogation, Kabha revealed that he was motivated to commit the murder by the death of Kamal Abu Waer, the first Palestinian security prisoner in Israel with a confirmed case of COVID-19, who later died of suspicion. complications from the disease.
Photos from the arrest of Esther Horgan’s killer
(Video: IDF Speaker Unit )
The suspect told investigators that on the evening of December 20, he noticed a Jewish woman, who turned out to be Esther Horgan, walking alone in the woods where he was taking inside cigarettes through the nearby security fence. He went to Horgan and hit his head with a rock, killing her.
Kabha fled the scene and for the next four days hid from the security services with the help of his friends and acquaintances in the town of Deir al-Rosson, where he was eventually captured.
The investigation into the murder is ongoing and Kabha is expected to stand trial in Samaria’s Military Court once the investigation is complete. “The security forces will continue to work hard to prevent terrorist activity and impose justice on all those involved,” the Shin Bet said in a statement.